1. Communication (or lack thereof)

   1. Notice of board meetings must be published ahead of time 

   2. Leaders should be encouraged to listen into board meetings with some mechanism for making comments/suggestions prior to and during the meeting

   3. All board minutes must be published and made available

   4. Regional leaders meetings need to be reinstated and encouraged

   5. Newsletters (emailed and posted) would be a great

   6. Calendar of events (This is necessarily very difficult and impossible to be comprehensive given that ‘emergencies’ pop up all of the time but it should be done on a best effort basis

   7. Act as a communications center where groups from around the country can provide help to regional issues (eg SOL reform)
       

2. Transparency (similar to communication but not the same)

   1. Audits – While not required, making audit reports available is considered best practice

   2. P&L reports – leadership wants (and should understand what the money is being spent on as well as how much

   3. When the board chooses to spend money and resources on any program, leaders should be informed as to what that is, why and how much it costs.
       

3. Accountability.  The last 10 months has revealed that the board is not accountable to anyone and the leaders and members simply have no say in how things are done. There is not even a proper mechanism for making suggestions. Many in our group have made suggestions and volunteered to assist only to be told that the board will get back to them. After months and sometimes years, no one got back to them. There also needs to be a mechanism whereby the leaders can hold the board to account.  We understand that this would have to have some significant limitations but it needs to be able to happen.
    

4. Vitriol – Since September, board members (primarily Dan) have sent vitriolic and threatening emails that are based on erroneous information or simply unfounded assumptions.  The rest of the board was copied on these emails and did not take any action to stop these egregious accusations, insults and threats. This group demands that an apology be forthcoming from those hurling the accusations and insults and the board members who ignored them either out of ignorance, indifference or some other reason.  It is believed that many of the horrible emails were based on the false assumption that we were encouraging Curtis.  No proof of that encouragement exists because we did not encourage him. In fact, just the opposite is true.
    

5. Houston Conference issues must be addressed.  In our initial letter we mentioned a number of issues with the Houston conference. They included issues with the conference itself (break out sessions, evaluation forms, entertainment…) and with the accommodations (again one of the vitriolic emails from Dan took aim at this based on a false assumption. This was done rather than just talking with us.)
    

6. Leaders meeting should include training on how to deal with survivor issues and self-help rather than a legal rehash of bylaws and leaders’ manual.  Training can include:

   1.  Responding to a first time survivor phone call

   2. Peer Counseling

   3. Media contacts

   4. Legislative reform

   5. Outreach …..

It may behoove the board to read the bylaws so that, as a minimum, they know the following:

1. Who is on the executive committee

2. ED cannot be related to a board member (you are related to yourself)

3. SNAP’s mission is NOT to just survivors’ of religious CSA but “…for victims of religious and institutional sexual abuse and their family members through various means…” (Article II section 2 of the bylaws) 
   
   7.  Media – SNAP’s media presence is antiquated and needs to be updated. Many of our leaders have offered help in this area only to be rebuffed or ignored.
   
   8.  Helpline – this needs to be put back the way that it was.  (NB This was not a hotline but a helpline)
   
   9.  Outreach and collaboration with other groups. When SNAP started, we were almost the only game in town.  That is no longer true and collaboration is a must.
   
   10.  Increase the number of board members with emphasis on recruiting board members from other countries, from specialized groups (eg LGBTQ+, foreign speaking). Since we are international, it is incumbent on the board to be international.
    

Some of the issues in our original letter have been addressed. For example – “Establish a search committee including Leaders for an executive director” and updating the web site.  These were all symptoms of a bigger issue and that is that the board was not being responsive to it’s membership (yes, I know that technically does not have any members) nor to it’s leaders.  To have a contact on the web site of someone who has had dementia for the last 2 years and only correct it when they happen to get meeting notes from our group only shows that the current board has serious issues.  I could site example after example of where the board failed in its mission to carry out SNAP’s mission (eg helpline issue took many months – it should have taken days and they never reached out to ask for help).